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A “chef-driven bar” from Toledo that hosts national cover bands several nights a week is
planning to open a Columbus location in the next few weeks.

Bar 145 will open its third location at 955 W. Fifth Ave. with limited hours as early as next
weekend, but it won’t be “in full swing until after Christmas,” said owner Jeremy Fitzgerald. When
fully open, Bar 145’s hours will be 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Fitzgerald started the bar/restaurant that specializes in burgers, bands and bourbon in Toledo
in 2011 and opened a second location in Kent this year.

“We label ourselves as the 21st-century hybrid gastropub,” said Fitzgerald, who grew up at his
family’s Mr. Ed’s Bar & Grille in the Lake Erie resort town of Put-in-Bay.

Gastropubs have been one of the fastest-growing concepts in the restaurant industry for the past
three years, said Tim Powell, founder and principal of business management firm Think Research and
Consulting in Dublin.

“In Chicago, there is an original called Publican that offers a huge variety of in-house draft
beers and culinary delicacies like duck hearts and suckling pig,” Powell said in an email.

Bar 145’s gastronomic specialty is burgers.

“We have this thing called a Stack Your Own,” Fitzgerald said. It’s a burger built from a
sushi-like menu on which customers check off their protein (beef, turkey, chicken, veggie or
salmon), bun, toppings and sauces. The burger goes for $9.

Diners also pick the temperature at which their protein is cooked. The perfect medium-rare
hamburger is cooked to 145 degrees, Fitzgerald said. That’s where he got the name for his bar,
which carries 40 craft beers and 30 bourbons.

The Columbus location is the largest of the three, at 5,400 square feet, including a
1,200-square-foot mezzanine and private bar, and a 1,200-square-foot patio that eventually will be
enclosed for year-round use.

“We’ve been looking in Columbus for a year and a half,” Fitzgerald said, choosing a location
that’s near the Short North and University District, as well as Grandview Heights.

“It’s a destination spot,” he said. “You can have a great dinner, and then stay all night and
party with the band.”